"Eighteen months after events in Ukraine started, Western countries still haven't swung the developing world behind supporting Kyiv.
Europe, Ukraine and the U.S. successfully have orchestrated several United Nations votes condemning Moscow's actions. In recent months, they have started talks with dozens of other countries on what a fair peace settlement might look like.
However, many of the biggest emerging economies -- including India, Brazil and South Africa -- remain neutral on the conflict At next week's gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, developing countries appear eager to shift the global focus to their priorities: global inequality and debt relief.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stayed away from this month's Group of 20 meeting and a Brics summit in August, hasn't left his country this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in contrast, will be at the U.N. and will participate in a Security Council debate on the conflict on Wednesday.
Yet, with the conflict threatening to descend into a bloody stalemate and the economic spillovers of the conflict still afflicting developing countries, Western efforts to craft an international consensus on peace terms that would benefit Ukraine have made only incremental progress.
"I don't think this is a situation where you have easy wins and easy losses," said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at Crisis Group, an international conflict-prevention organization.
"A lot of non-Western countries continue to try to triangulate between Ukraine and Russia."
But in recent months, diplomats and observers say, the international willingness to call out Moscow publicly has diminished. Several emerging countries have come out against calls from Ukraine and its backers to seek reparations from the Kremlin and create an international tribunal targeting Russia's leadership.
The big focus for developing countries at the U.N. gathering will be pressing Western countries to meet their 2030 commitments to sustainable development for the world's poorer countries.
Few developing countries joined Western sanctions against Russia, while many global capitals were susceptible in the first months of the conflict to Moscow's argument that it was those measures, not the conflict itself, that was pushing up energy and food prices.
In a shuffle of international politics that will have consequences for years, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were among six countries invited in August to join the Brics grouping, led by Russia and China.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has become among the most outspoken leaders of a neutral country to criticize the West's approach to the conflict. Washington bristled after he accused the U.S. of "encouraging the conflict" by sending arms to Ukraine.
Jan Techau, a former German defense official who is now German director at the consulting firm Eurasia Group, said some Western officials underestimated the degree of animosity toward the U.S. and Europe in parts of the world, and the desire of leading players like Brazil and South Africa to assert their independence and interests on the international stage.
"It's clear that the West overall has been surprised by the pretty widespread reluctance by many of the countries in the so-called Global South . . . to come on board," he said.
Yet from a slow start, Ukraine and its Western backers have adapted to setbacks.
Zelensky has courted African, Gulf and Asian countries, like India. Meanwhile, Kyiv has worked with European allies on a separate diplomatic track that is seeking to find common ground between Western nations and big emerging countries on what a just peace for Ukraine would entail. The closed-door discussions have allowed participants to start cooperating on specific aspects of the conflict without being forced into public condemnations of Moscow.
At a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in August, more than 40 countries participated, including China for the first time. Discussions among senior officials might continue at the U.N. next week." [1]
The West struggles to get developing nations to support Kyiv - this is the main reason why the Western sanctions on Russia and China do not work. They are annoying for everybody in the world, no question about it. They do not reach the main goal of the West - to stop Russia and China. Dear EU, could you please stop arresting automobiles of private Russian citizens before you convince India to stop selling diesel to you produced from Russian oil? You look not only mean. You look stupid.
1. World News: West Struggles to Get Developing Nations to Support Kyiv. Norman, Laurence.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 15 Sep 2023: A.8.
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